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THANKSGIVING SERMO^ 



i 



KEY. H. A. BOAEDMAN, D.D. 




IIE.ILIAC WD SALVATIOX FOR Ol'R COL'XTRY 
FROll GOD ALONE. 



A SERMON 



Preached in the Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, 
ON Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, 18G4. 



BY 

HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D. D. 




PHILADELPHIA: 
WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN. 
r "^ i\ No. 606 Chestnut Street. 

1864. 






Philadelphu, December 6, 1864. 
To the Ret. Henry A. Boardman, D. D. 

Dear Sir: — The undersigned, almost all of whom had the privilege of hearing your late 
Thanksgiving Discourse, believing that its general circulation would both gratify and 
benefit many besides themselves, beg the favor of you to permit them to have the Discourse 
published. Should you accede to our request, please hand the manuscript to the bearer of 
this note, in order to publication, and oblige. 

Yours, very truly and respectfully, 

11. C. GKIER, 

JOHN H. BROWN, 

THOMAS A. SCOTT, 

W. H. DRAYTON, 

JAMES THOMPSON, 

JAMES ROSS SNOWDEN, 

WILLIAM A. PORTER, 

WILLIAM M. SMITH, 

WILLIAM B. HIESItELL, 

R. CRESSWELL, 



ROBERT PATTERSON, 
SAMUEL HOOD, 
JOS. PATTERSON, 
THEODORE CUYLER, 
H. L. S PRO AT, 
JAMES SCHOTT, 
D. HAYES AGNEW, 
CHARLES F. HASELTINE, 
ROBERT H. McGRATH, 
SAMUEL ASBURY. 



Philadelphia, December S, 1864. 
Gentlemen : — It was the aim of my Thanksgiving Sermon to present, in the simplest 
form, the one great truth which is clearly of paramount importance to us in our present 
troubles. I suppose there is ground here upon which Christian men of all sects and 
all political parties can stand together. It gratifies me to know that the Discourse met 
your approval; and I cheerfully plac"e it in your hands, precisely as written and delivered. 
With much respect, 

I am faithfuUj' your's, 

HENRY A. BOARDMAN. 
To the Hon. R. C. Grier, 

Majoe-Gen. Patterson, 

John H. Brown, Esq., and others. 



SERMON. 



Jeremiah xvii. 14: — "heal me, o lord, and i shall be healed: 
save me, and i shall be saved: for thou art my praise." 

The occasion calls for a sermon of thanksgiving. 
To this service the day is dedicated. The sanctua- 
ries of the land are thrown open ; and from the high 
seats of magistracy, the people are summoned to enter 
in and lay their sacrifices of praise upon the altars of 
the Most High. We have cause for thanksgiving. 
Our personal and domestic blessings are not to 
be numbered. The least favored amongst us are 
loaded with mercies. Who can review his life 
without exclaiming, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, 
and forget not all his benefits"? Who can look 
around him without feeling that his blessings greatly 
exceed his trials, and immeasurably transcend his 
desert '? The happiness of life is mostly made up 
of little things, — so little, that they pass, often, 
without being chronicled, or even noticed. A true 
disciple will find motives to gratitude in the pos- 
session of his rational faculties ; in his daily food and 
raiment; in his means of culture and improvement; 



in his business, his books, his friends; in the inter- 
change of social sympathies; in the opportunities of 
doing and receiving good; in whatever of comfort 
he may derive from his home. It is a great mercy 
that we pass so many days and months without 
experience of bodily pain or sickness; and that 
when sickness and sorrow do come, they bring so 
many alleviations with them. Especially ought we 
to be thankful for God's Holy Word ; for the atone- 
ment of Christ; the mission of the Spirit; the Sab- 
bath and its ordinances; the forgiveness of our 
sins; reconciliation to God; the consolations of the 
Gospel; and the hope of everlasting felicity. These 
surely are mercies which may well enkindle the 
gratitude of every heart. 

With great propriety, also, have we been reminded 
of the exemption of the country from pestilence and 
famine, and foreign war. Had any one of these 
scourges been laid upon us, it might have brought 
us to the brink of ruin. That they have been 
averted, is to be ascribed wholly to the unmerited 
goodness of our Heavenly Father. 

Even the history of this fatal w^ar is not without 
reasons for thanksgiving. It is of the Divine 
mercy that this rebellion has not attained its end 
in the overthrow of our government ; and that our 
people have with such unanimitv come forward to 



the maintenance of our Constitution and Union. 
We must refer to His hand all the successes with 
which he has been pleased to crown our army and 
navy ; and all the progress that has been made in 
suppressing this most criminal revolt. We may be 
thankful that any Slave States have become free; 
and should any method of universal emancipation be 
devised, which, likfe that adopted in our own and 
other Northern States, shall not involve the destruc- 
tion of either the black or the white race, but con- 
duce to the amelioration and happiness of both; 
we shall have very great cause for gratitude to God. 
Another beam of light which relieves the darkness 
of this scene, may be found in the noble spirit of 
philanthropy which has been evoked by the war ; 
in the lavish contributions and generous labors 
applied to the relief of our sick and wounded sol- 
diers and sailors. 

Here are themes for thanksgiving ; and others 
might be specified. But after all, this is but one 
side of the picture. AVe need not dissemble the 
feeling, that the prevailing sentiment of the country 
is not one of praise and rejoicing. With no dis- 
position to surrender its birthright, the land, never- 
theless, is very full of sorrow. Putting out of sight 
that large class to whom the war is bringing sudden 
wealth, and that larger class of frivolous people 



6 

whose heartless merriment nothing short of the 
grave could extinguish ; most persons are oppressed 
with our national troubles. We did not look for 
three years and a half of war. We did not count 
upon the mutilation and slaughter of some hundreds 
of thousands of our young men. We did not expect 
to see death and sorrow carried into every village 
and hamlet of the country. We were not prepared 
to iind ourselves, after so many frightful battles, 
confronted by a future as dark and impenetrable as 
that which now rises before us. And, therefore, 
while we are grateful for God's manifold mercies, 
the feeling which pervades the land to-day is not 
one purely of thanksgiving. This must be my 
apology for selecting a text which may, perhaps, 
have fallen upon your ears with an unwelcome sound 
" Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed ; save me, 
and I shall be saved : for Thou art my praise." 

It seems to be an ejaculation of the Prophet, who, 
turning from the contemplation of the judgments 
with which God was about visiting' his country for 
its sins, reverently confesses his own morally diseased 
and helpless state, and supplicates the Divine pity. 
The sentiment is equally appropriate to an afflicted 
nation and an afflicted individual. I shall treat of it 
very briefly, as the prayer with which it becomes 
us as a nation, to appear in the presence of God. 



The general proposition I wish to lay down, is, 
that God alone can "heal" our maladies, and 
"save" us from the eyils which oppress or 
threaten us. It is not meant by this language that 
we can hope for deliverance, only through some 
direct, and, as it were, miraculous intervention of 
the Supreme Being ; but, simply, that He must pro- 
vide the means and instruments; raise up the men, 
and guide their counsels; control all hearts, and 
overrule all events, to the furtherance of the desired 
ends; if the nation is to be effectually "healed" and 
"saved." The case is past human cure. No people 
can get on wisely and well, even in prosperous 
times, without His guiding hand; how much less a 
people in our circumstances. 

For the clearing of this point, consider, that it is 
God who has visited us ivith these calamities. 

You will not misunderstand this remark. Your 
theology recognizes a Providence — a universal Provi- 
dence — a Providence which comprehends all crea- 
tures and all events. You believe that whatever 
is, is by his appointment or by his permission; that, 
while he cannot ordain moral evil, he can permit it ; 
and that what he permits, is just as essential a part of 
his plan as what he ordains. You see his hand in 
the fall of the angels, in the sin of our first parents, 
and in all the wars which have carried sorrow and 



8 

carnage through the earth. You have learned from 
his own word, that war is as much one of his imple- 
ments for punishing nations, as pestilence or famine ; 
that it was, more than any other, the scourge he 
used for chastising the Hebrews ; that it was 
the ordinary judgment he denounced prophetically 
against the great pagan monarchies of antiquity; and 
that he everywhere challenges the same absolute 
authority over war, in respect to its source, its 
instruments, its duration, and its effects, as he does 
over the elements and the irrational animals. To 
cite extended proofs of this, would be to imply 
that you had never looked into your Bibles. 

We affirm, then, that this war which is ravaging 
our country, is of God, The causes, remote and 
proximate, which led to it, — the oppression, the 
fanaticism, the ambition, the cupidity, the disregard 
of human rights, and the invasion of constitutional 
rights; the wrongs and the sins on the one side 
and on the other, were of his permission, as really 
as was the actual commencement of the war against 
the Union — the baleful result in which they all 
culminated. Not to concede this, were to suppose 
that here was a series of events pregnant with 
momentous consequences, M'hich was independent 
of God's control, — a step only from handing the 
world over to the sway of a dismal atheism. But 



9 

if these things were of God, so also must have 
been the whole course of the war ; and not less, the 
various evils which now loom up on the hori- 
zon, — the natural product of the fatal contest that 
has been forced upon us, largely augmented by 
human infirmity and passion. 

This general view might suffice to show, that our 
only hope of deliverance is in God. If he sent 
these evils, he alone can remove them. He claims 
it as his prerogative, "I wound, and I heal." 
(Dent, xxxii. 39.) None can "wound" without his 
leave ; nor can any " heal " without his help. If 
this were practicable in any circumstances, it could 
not be in our's ; the wounds are too many and too 
deep. If the Great Physician do not undertake 
the case, it must be given over as hopeless. A 
little attention to details will make this appa- 
rent. 

In the^r^^ place, there is the military problem. 

In April, 1861, this was thought to be a very 
simple problem. Turning back to almost any file 
of newspapers of that day, one will encounter a 
strain of confidence and self-glorying, which re- 
flected but too faithfully the public sentiment. 
Arithmetic was put to the genial task of cyphering 
out the military weakness of the South. A people 
so destitute of manufactures, sparsely difi'used over 



10 

n, broad extent of territory, and hampered by the 
presence of four milHons of slaves who would 
instantly spring to arms against their masters, must 
soon succumb to our armies. The period fixed in 
the high places of the land for the duration of the 
war, and published to all the Cabinets of Europe, 
was "three months." Would to God that the 
prophecy had been of a loftier inspiration. The 
three months have become three years — and now 
wise men refrain from predicting when the end is 
to be. 

To review the progress of the war would be as 
impracticable here, as it would be useless to pro- 
nounce a panegyric upon our army and navy. Their 
patriotism, their courage, their endurance, are the 
theme of every tongue. They have won numerous 
battles. They have achieved great results. But it 
were puerile to pretend that all has been done which 
we have hoped for, and prayed for, and looked for. 
Powerful armies still confront our forces. And no 
one is so sanguine as to believe that the rebellion 
can or will be subdued, until we have raised new 
armies still. The feeling lies unuttered in many a 
bosom, that tens of thousands of graves may yet be 
added to the vast cities of the dead, peopled by this 
war. 

Have these facts no voice? Do they not in thun- 



11 

der tones proclaim a GoD^ Do they not affirm, that 
" the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the 
strong;" but "the Most High ruleth in the kingdom 
of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he wilU" If 
there are any so blinded by party-feeling, or so 
delirious with revenge, as to contemn these truths, 
the discipline of these three gloomy years has been 
lost upon them. While the war goes on, we must 
confide in our armies. But to confide in them, 
irrespective of the God of battles, were a huge 
impiety. Here, beyond a question, has been our 
mistake. Instead of exalting God, we have exalted 
man. We have glorified our own skill and prowess 
and numbers, without considering sufficiently that 
armies and nations are before God as the chaff of 
the summer threshing-floor. The feeling which befits 
us to-day is, "Some trust in chariots and some in 
horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord 
our God." Our ow^n skill has not availed to "heal" 
us. Our own bravery has not availed to " save" us. 
Let us go to Him who holds the reins of every war, 
and decides the issue of every battle, and cry, " Heal 
us, O Lord, and we shall be healed; save us, and we 
shall be saved: for Thou art our praise." 

The necessity for this appeal to God will be no 
less apparent, if we turn, in the second place, from 
the military to the political problem. 



12 

The end to be accomplished — the end, /. e., which 
all parties profess to have in view — is, the restora- 
tion of the Union. The difficulties in the way of this 
result, were very formidable from the hour hostilities 
commenced. They have been multiplied a hundred- 
fold since. The question is one which reaches to 
the very foundations of the government; and in- 
volves every vital principle embodied in our Consti- 
tution. It comprehends, on the one hand, all the 
delicate problems pertaining to the relations of the 
Federal and State organizations; and, on the other, 
all the interests involved in the subject of Slavery, 
There is no lack of sciolists who are ready to dogma- 
tize on each of these topics ; nor of heated partisans, 
who use them as vehicles for coarse vituperation. 
One need not spend his breath in arguing with 
either simpletons or madmen. Thoughtful men of 
all parties must feel the solemnity of these problems. 
Take the latter of them. Here is a system of servi- 
tude coeval almost with the colonizing of the South. 
It has grown with its growth, and strengthened 
with its strength. The whole social structure is 
pervaded by it: it runs through its domestic, civil, 
commercial, and religious life, as the arteries and veins 
do through the human body. That it has carried 
debility and disease with it; that it has produced 
an untold amount of evil, physical and moral, (as it 



13 

has, certainly, in ten thousand cases, been overruled 
for the good of the inferior race), only complicates 
the problem. In every view, it is a colossal institu- 
tion. We must all deplore its existence. We must 
all reprobate its agency in stimulating the leaders 
of this rebellion to their assault upon the Union. 
We must all desire the well-being of the African 
race. But how to meet the questions which the 
course of the war is beginning to force upon us, 
is a task for which few will feel themselves pre- 
pared, who are capable of comprehending these 
questions. 

I am not speaking for or against any political 
party; nor for or against any line of policy. You 
belong to all parties. You have a common stake 
in the welfare of the country; and a common desire 
for the safety and improvement of the two races. 
And you must view with a common solicitude the 
approach (for it seems to be approaching), of a period 
when you are to stand face to face with the ques- 
tion, " What is to be done with four millions of 
emancipated blacks'? AVhat will their good demand 
of the country 1 AVhat provision will or can be 
made for their control and education'? xlnd how is 
the mighty convulsion which must follow the sud- 
den annihilation of this complex system, to be so 



14 

guided and mollified as to be made a savor of life, 
and not of death] 

These are topics for humane and patriotic men 
of all parties — as well for those who deprecate 
the overthrow of slavery as a misfortune to the 
servile race, as for those who can see in the system 
only unmixed evil. The single object for which 
they are introduced here, is to show that we need 
a more than mortal wisdom to conduct us through 
this labyrinth. The country is not without skilful 
statesmen and large-hearted philanthropists. But 
it may be doubted whether it has for centuries 
fallen to the lot of the philanthropists and statesmen 
of a nation, to deal with problems so profound and 
intricate as those which seem about to demand a 
solution here. Happily, there is one resource left 
us; it is the only one. "The foolishness of God 
is wiser than men." To His eye, this tangled maze 
is lighted up as by a meridian sun: this chaos is sym- 
metry and beauty. He knows what is best for the 
slave and for the master ; for the South and for the 
North, and for both combined. If He has decreed 
that the system shall be annulled. He knows just 
how it should be done ; and how the African should 
be cared for; and how the issues of the crisis can 
all be met ; and the country " healed" of its wounds, 
and "saved" from its peril. And, therefore, our 



15 

great and urgent duty is to commend our rulers to 
His teaching ; to supplicate for our whole nation 
that divine illumination which He alone can bestow ; 
and to cry to him unceasingly, " Heal us, O Lord, 
and we shall be healed; save us, and we shall be 
saved : for Thou art our praise." 

To the same result we should be led by consider- 
ing the other of the two topics just suggested, the 
restoration or re-construction of the Union. I state 
a familiar fact, when I say, that there is no question 
of the day upon which there is a greater diversity 
of opinion. In no party is there any homogene- 
ity of sentiment on the subject. It divides and 
subdivides all parties. The ablest statesmen of 
the country are the poles apart. The question 
involves, under God, the entire future of the nation. 
And confounding, as it does, all the wisdom of the 
land, how obvious, how indispensable, the duty of 
laying it before Him who can resolve it. If there 
be any method by which these States can be brought 
together again in a just, beneficent, and lasting 
Union, He must reveal it, and our place is humbly 
to ask him to do it. 

This observation brings me to the third and last 
of the great problems which we can hope to see 
resolved only by invoking God's assistance, viz., the 
social problem. 



16 

In the judgment of very many on both sides of 
this fratricidal war, and of intelligent foreigners 
generally, the great difficulty of all lies here. The 
conflict of arms may be carried to a decisive issue. 
The political questions of slavery and re-construction 
may be disposed of. But can these two peoples 
ever again become one nation 1 If by one nation 
here were intended a nation in the sense that 
Austria is one nation — a collection of provinces 
inhabited by distinct races, speaking diff'erent 
tongues, alien from one another in all their tradi- 
tions, and having almost nothing in common but 
their allegiance to the same sovereign — there might 
be no Gordian knot to untie. But such a union 
would not answer the first conditions of our great 
charter. It would be little short of a grim bur- 
lesque upon the idea of a republic. For the pur- 
poses of our Constitution, we must be one nation 
in sentiment and sympathy — so far at least as to 
be able and willing to cooperate in carrying on 
the same government, acknowledging the same 
laws, and sharing the same burdens. This implies 
somewhat of mutual respect and confidence. But 
this war has alienated the two sections of the Union 
as much in feeling as in form. It has replaced 
the ancient concord with hate and (shall I say if?) 
revenge. The testimonies which come to us on 



17 

this point from the South, and which too often 
salute our own eyes and ears, woukl seem to warrant 
the conckision, that any real union of the two 
populations must be for ever impossible. The pre- 
valent sentiment with us appears to be, that it is 
only a forced and nominal union which can be 
expected under the most favorable circumstances; 
and even to this the South is not willing to listen. 

Here is a difficulty which the most sanguine will 
concede to be of towering proportions. The sphere 
to which it pertains, is that, not of government and 
police, of manners and letters; but of thought and 
feeling. The task to be performed is that of allay- 
ing resentments, extinguishing animosities, turning 
enemies into friends, and obliterating from millions 
of hearts the memories of battles, conflagrations, 
hospitals and prisons, rife with unutterable sorrows. 
Of course, man is powerless here. What can he do 
in such a presence, but sit down, mute and sad in 
his conscious helplessness? 

But is the task, therefore, hopeless? I do not 
know whether it will ever be accomplished. This 
only I know: "That with God all things are 
possible." He can do it. He can cause the wrongs 
of this war to be forgotten, and its hatreds buried. 
He can rekindle the fires of affection upon altars 
where they long ago went out. He can fuse these 
2 



18 

discordant fragments into a homogeneous mass, 
instinct with the warmth of a new and genial life. 
He can make us again one nation — not in name 
and aspect merely, but in sympathy and purpose. 
T do not say that He will do this. I say He can 
do it ; because He is Omnipotent. And, further, 
if it be a part of his purpose (as we all humbly 
hope and pray) not to give us over to final dismem- 
berment and ruin, we have ground to believe that, 
sooner or later. He will do it. And this is reason 
enough why we should plead with Him on this 
behalf; why we should cry importunately, "Heal 
us, O Lord, and we shall be healed; save us, and 
we shall be saved: for Thou art our praise." 

Not to advert to other topics, I think it has 
i^een shown that in respect to the three great 
problems of our condition — the military^ the political 
and the social, we must look to God for healing 
and deliverance. I think it has been shown that 
his blessing alone can crown our arms with 
success: that we may succeed there, and, if left 
to ourselves, fail disastrously in the adjustment 
of our political relations : and that if by his favor 
both of these interests could be arranged, there 
would still remain those wide-spread antipa- 
thies and estrangements which He alone can 
compose. It has, further, been pointed out that 



19 

if we desire Him to interpose for the healing of 
our maladies, we must seek this great mercy at 
his hands, as we do all other mercies, by earnest 
prayer. This implies some other things besides 
prayer; especially does it imply A general refor- 
mation AND return to God — at once the evidence 
and the fruit of the sincerity of our prayers. 

Here, precisely, is the work to be done, if we 
would see our distracted country restored to peace 
and unity. We watch intently the measures of our 
Government. We await with anxiety the daily 
bulletins from the field. But we have duties nearer 
home. Without Divine illumination our statesmen 
are blind. Without Divine protection our armies 
are impotent. These armies and magistrates are 
simply the representatives of the nation. It is the 
temper of the nation which God regards. They would 
not fail of a blessing, if we, as a nation, should re- 
turn to God. Can any one who acknowledges a 
Providence, doubt that this war was sent as a punish- 
ment for the sins of the nation; that it has been 
prolonged on account of our sins; and that if we 
should put away our sins, God would withdraw his 
rod X The voice which comes to us from his throne 
to-day, is, " Return, ye backsliding children, and I 
will heal your backsliding." Suppose the response 
could go up from every part of our land, which went 



20 

back from the chosen people : " Behold, we come 
unto thee : for thou are the Lord our God. Truly 
in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and 
from the multitude of mountains : truly in the Lord 
our God is the salvation of Israel." (Jer. iii. 22, 
23.) Would you not look to see the land presently 
resting from this weary war 1 

In such a reformation the Church is bound to 
take the lead. Of its agency, both South and North, 
in bringing on the war, and protracting it, it is not 
needful to speak. No one, it is presumed, will ven- 
ture to say that it is guiltless in this matter. Nor 
will it be denied, that it may exert a potential influ- 
ence in bringing about that merciful intervention 
of an injured God, which would speedily terminate 
our troubles. 

Not to enter into details, there are in our country 
several millions of persons who profess the evangeli- 
cal faith. They are of all classes and all occupa- 
tions. They are in the humblest and in the loftiest 
conditions. They are in daily contact with our 
entire population. They are doing more, whether 
for good or ill, to shape the destiny of the country 
than any other equal portion of our people. These 
Christians claim to be the followers of Christ. 
They profess to be imbued with his Spirit, and 
to walk in his steps. There is not one of them 



21 

who will not admit, that it is his paramount 

OBLIGATION TO DO WHAT HE BELIEVES HIS MASTER 

WOULD DO, if He were here in his circumstances. 

What, then, have we reason to believe our Sa- 
viour WOULD DO, if He were here during these 
troublous times ^ He would do just what He did 
in Judea. It would be his meat to do his Father's 
will, and to promote his Father's glory. He would 
set an example of obedience to the laws. He would 
do nothing to embarrass the magistracy of the land 
in the legitimate exercise of its authority. He 
would frown upon sedition and rebellion. He would 
frown upon revenge. He would rebuke covetous- 
ness, pride, ostentation, dishonesty, hypocrisy, false- 
hood and intolerance. He would instruct his disci- 
ples to love one another, to shun all acrimony of 
speech, and all malevolence of temper; "not to 
backbite with their tongues, nor take up a reproach 
against their neighbor.'" He would say to them, 
"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do 
good to them that hate you, and pray for them 
which despitefuUy use you and persecute you." He 
would everywhere exhibit a meek, patient, forgiv- 
ing, benevolent spirit. He would do good to all 
who came within his reach. He would exhort 
others to the practice of, forbearance, moderation, 
and charity. He would render to Csesar the things 



22 

which are Caesar's, and to God the things that are 
God's. He would do his utmost to diffuse a spirit 
of love and kindness, and to make His own blessed 
Gospel the ruling power in all our affairs, ci\il and 
military, social and ecclesiastical. 

I will not mock you by stopping to prove that 
this is the sort of life our Saviour would lead if he 
were here in person. Every Christian must know 
this. And we know just as well that we are bound 
to imitate His example. It is as much our duty as 
it would be His to cultivate the spirit that has been 
described. And if this were done ; if that great body 
of Christians who claim to have been sprinkled with 
His blood and baptized into His spirit, should begin 
thus to live up, in some good degree, to their pro- 
fession, and to follow him in earnest, what a "heal- 
ing" power would it exert upon the wounds of our 
suffering country. How much would it mitigate 
the horrors of this contest. How certainly would it 
bring down, as a choice blessing upon our rulers, 
new supplies of the wisdom and the fortitude, the 
integrity and the prudence, the forbearance and the 
courage, which they need in the discharge of their 
arduous and responsible duties. How effectually 
would it replace the uncharitableness and the dis- 
cord, the aversions and the divisions, which prevail 
among ourselves, with candor, conciliation, and 



23 

unanimity. With what silent energ-y would it act 
upon the public press, upon the courts and legisla- 
tures, and upon the whole tone of the country. 
How surely would it tell even upon the misguided 
hosts that are waging this criminal war against the 
Government. In a word, with what confidence 
might we hail it as the harbinger of some decisive 
interposition of a benign Providence which should 
arrest this sanguinary strife, constrain the revolted 
States to lay down their arms, and secure to us a 
wise, equitable, and permanent peace. 

Here, my Brethren, is the remedy for our dis- 
orders which the Bible offers us. There is no lack 
of catholicons. They are tendered by political par- 
ties and by individuals, by men in power and by men 
out of power, every day. The pulpits of the land 
overflow with them. We need not stop to compare 
r to sift them ; to inquire what they may comprise 
of truth and wisdom, and what of error and folly. 
AVhatever may be done or left undone, one thing is 
certain: our deliverance must come from God. And 
the surest pledge and instrument of it, would be 

A GENERAL REVIVAL THROUGHOUT THE LAND OF THE 
SPIRIT AND PRACTICE OF TRUE RELIGION. There is 

more to be hoped for from the Church of Christ than 
from Cabinets and armies ; for armies and Cabinets 
will properly fulfil their mission only as the Church 



24 

fulfils her's. Let the Church shake herself from the 
dust, and come out from the world, and seek a fresh 
baptism of the spirit of love and holiness, and give 
herself anew to her heavenly vocation, and cry with- 
out ceasing, on behalf of an humbled and penitent 
people, "-Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed; 
Save us, and we shall be saved ;" and when another 
Thanksgiving Day returns, our Sanctuaries will re- 
sound with the grateful anthem : " Glory to God in 
the highest ; and on earth peace, good will toward 



itl^fffiRY OP o 



960 g' 



0J2 '"g^lf 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




012 027 960 9 



Hollinger 

pH8.5 

Mill Run F3-1 955 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




012 027 960 9 



■\y 



HoUinger 

pH8.5 

Mill Run F3.1955 



